


All to Zero

by shiroderexx



Category: ATEEZ (Band)
Genre: Angst, Captain!Wooyoung, Chief Warrant Officer!Jongho, Crybaby!Jongho, Do not hate me too much?, First Lieutenant!Hongjoong, Gen, Graphical descriptions of death, Honor the blood oath, Jelly monsters are scary, Lab assistant!Yunho, Mentions of viruses, Pain, Revenge, Scientist!Mingi, Scientist!Yeosang, Very young!Ateez, You Have Been Warned, doctor!seonghwa, this is going to hurt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-02
Updated: 2021-03-02
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:33:40
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 11,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24462814
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shiroderexx/pseuds/shiroderexx
Summary: Yeosang and his longlife friends escape at night to bury their treasure - a time capsule they promise not to open until 10 years have passed. Their little adventure is crushed when they encounter an infamous gelatinous creature.
Comments: 10
Kudos: 32





	1. Up All Night

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! This is 9th day of the Kpop Songfic Challenge I created. If you are curious about the schedule you can check it on my pinned (@jeonghxbit). Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy it!

Yeosang flinched on his bed and woke up. He definitely had heard a noise. Still half in Morpheus’ arms, he sat up in a daze. The noise repeated itself. Something hit his window. And then it did it again. He got up and headed to the window barefooted. He opened the window and looked down, only to see a little pebble approach his face at the speed of light. Too sleepy to avoid it (not like he could have avoided it if he were fully awake), the little rock hit him on the forehead. His hand reached to touch the hot spot.

“Bingo! Bahahaha” “I’m so sorry, Yeosang!” “Wow, Wooyoung you are so good! Hahaha” “Hello, Yeosang!”

Hearing the familiar voices completely woke Yeosang up. However happy he was to see his friends; confusion quickly took over his mind.

“What are you guys doing here?”, Yeosang whispered at his friends.

“We are gonna do it tonight!”, Wooyoung beamed.

The kid showed a metal box to his friend.

“We are going to bury it?”, Yeosang asked them.

“Yeah! So, grab your things and hurry down”, Hongjoong gestured him to act fast.

“Give me a minute”, Yeosang said before turning back to his dark room.

He did not dare turn on a single light for it could wake his parents up. Yeosang did not need it anyway, he knew where the things he wanted to bury were. He hurried to his desk and opened the last drawer. There it was a letter and a pendant. He grabbed the items and rushed to put on some pants before heading to the open window again.

“Guys, I need some help to get down”, Yeosang told his friends.

The tallest of the bunch walked to the front of the group. Yunho quickly kneeled so that Mingi could get up on his shoulders. In a second, Mingi’s eyes were almost at the same height as Yeosang’s.

“Hold onto me”, Mingi smiled.

Yeosang carefully passed a leg through the window, then another, until he was seating on the verge. Through the corner of his eye, he saw the rest of their friends approach the human tower to prevent Yeosang from hitting the ground, distinctly fast a very worried Seonghwa. Yeosang took a deep breath and hoped onto Mingi’s body like a koala. Even if he hated being tiny, now Yeosang was glad he was.

“I’ll catch you!”, Seonghwa whispered.

Yeosang let himself drop from Mingi’s to Seonghwa’s arm. He did not let go of the breath he was holding until Seonghwa placed him on the safe ground.

“You got everything?”, Wooyoung asked him.

“Yep”, Yeosang smiled while holding up his letter and pendant.

“Then, let’s go!”, Hongjoong commanded while hopping onto his bike.

“Hop on”, Yunho pointed to the back of his bike.

Yeosang sat down and held onto his friends waist.

“Let’s go bury the treasure”, Hongjoong grinned at Yeosang and started pedaling.

Everyone followed suit right after. Yeosang held tightly onto Yunho’s body. The bumps of the terrain made him flinch from time to time because of the pain but he was too excited to let it bother him. They were going to bury the treasure.

»

Yunho slowly stopped the bike so that Yeosang would not jump over. It had already happened once while he was sitting behind Wooyoung's back. The guy was a lot of things, but careful was not one of them. Yeosang carefully hoped off his friend’s bike and waited for the others to do the same.

“I think burying it here is nice”, Hongjoong informed the group.

They had gone up the town’s mountain to the forest and rode on the dirt tracks for a while before stopping on a clear. At night, the place was amazing. The moon shone and showed the kids a beautiful landscape: a grass field filled with all kinds of flowers with a big sturdy weeping willow in its center.

“This is such a nice place for a hidden base!”, San rushed to pass through the leaf curtain.

He disappeared behind it, and soon everyone followed him. Inside the tree the clear moonlight passed through the leaves and made them shine with beautiful reflections.

“Wow”, Yeosang heard Jongho, the youngest, whisper.

“How did you find this place, Hongjoong?”, Yunho asked their friend.

“Ah, well, that’s a… that’s”, Honjoong’s face turned red within a second.

“We found it”, Seonghwa gently placed a hand over Hongjoong’s shoulder.

“How did you-“, Yunho’s phrase is cut by Wooyoung’s screaming.

“Guys! Look! I’m going to climb the tree”, he announced while grasping on the lowest branches and propelling himself up.

“Wooyoung! You are going to break your neck!”, San exclaimed.

“Oh! I want too”, Mingi quickly joined.

“Me too!”, Jongho rushed to their side.

“Not you”, Seonghwa stopped the youngest before he could reach up.

“Eh? But I wanna”, Jongho pouted.

“You could hurt yourself”, Yunho explained the kid.

Jongho pouted even harder.

“I wanna climb the tree”, Jongho fought back tears.

“Jongho, don’t cry”, San shushed him.

But the kid started bawling. Yeosang hurried to his side like the others.

“C’mon, Jongho. Don’t cry”, he said softly.

“Wooyoung! Mingi! Get down now!”, Hongjoong ordered the troublemakers.

“But I want to reach the top!”, Wooyoung shouted back.

“If you don’t come back down, we won’t bury your letters!”, Seonghwa menaced them.

Mingi, closest to the ground, quickly jumped down and joined the group. Wooyoung also descended, just more reluctantly. When he finally approached the group and Jongho calmed down, Hongjoong started speaking.

“Okay, now that we all are on the ground”, he significantly stared at Wooyoung and Mingi who looked down ashamed, “We should bury our treasure. Seonghwa?”

Seonghwa opened his backpack where the metal box was being carried during the ride. He took it out and placed it on the ground. All the guys sat around it.

“Okay, now let’s place our letters inside”, Hongjoong grabbed his own and placed it inside.

The box was filled with eight letters very quickly.

“Now, we’ll place our special items”, Hongjoong announced. “It is forbidden to ask what it is, or to look at the other’s items when we place our own, okay?”

“Yeah” “Okay” “Sure”, everyone nodded in agreement.

“Let’s wait outside the leaf curtain”, Seonghwa said.

“Jongho, you go first”, Hongjoong ordered.

The kid gulped and headed inside the tree. After a minute he came back, and everyone quickly followed after. Wooyoung was second, then Mingi. Fourth was San, and quickly after Yeosang himself, followed Yunho. Then Seonghwa, and finally Hongjoong.

“I closed it!”, Hongjoong announced.

Everyone came back inside the leaf bubble. Hongjoong was holding the metal box between his tiny hands.

“Let’s bury our treasure”, he smiled.

Seonghwa opened his backpack again and took out some gardening tools. Yeosang ended up holding a tiny gardening shovel.

“Where should we bury it?”, Mingi asked.

“I think the base of the tree would be an easy place to remember”, San suggested.

“I was thinking the same”, Seonghwa nodded.

“Then let’s dig in”, Yunho hurried to the place and started delving.

After some literal sweat, blood, and tears (Yunho hurt his finger and started bleeding a little, causing Jongho to burst into tears again), a hole was dug.

“Okay, now we’ll place our time capsule in the hole and bury it”, Hongjoong said ceremoniously.

He softly placed the metal box on the hole and dropped some dirt on top of it as if it was an actual burial. Seonghwa imitated him, and then everyone grabbed some dirt and threw it on top of the box.

“We promise not to open this box until 10 years have passed”, Hongjoong lifted one of the gardening tools, the sharpest one, and punctured his pinky finger slightly. A single drop of blood fell to the ground under which the capsule rested.

“What are you doing?”, Wooyoung asked in shock.

“It’s a blood oath”, Hongjoong sucked on his pinky finger to stop the bleeding.

Everyone went silent, the seriousness of the fact downing on them. Hongjoong wanted to make a blood oath over a time capsule?

“Are you in or not?”, Seonghwa asked the bunch while puncturing his own pinky finger.

“I’m in”, Yunho extended his hand to grab the tool from Seonghwa’s.

He flinched a little at the pain, but quickly a blood dropped from his own finger. San was next and he sucked on his pinky finger trying to hold back tears. Surprisingly, Jongho did not cry this time and even bravely punctured himself. After Wooyoung and Mingi, it was Yeosang’s turn. His right hand shook while holding the tool, but he gulped down and took a stronger grip around it. In silence, he approached the tool to his pinky finger and pinched it. He did not know it required that much strength to pass through skin. The burning sensation of pain rushed from his palm to the rest of his body, it was not as intense as he had expected, but it was strong regardless. Thankfully, it washed out quickly and he let a single drop fall from his finger to the ground.

“Should we carve our names on the tree?”, Wooyoung suggested after what seemed like a lifetime.

“That’s nice.” “Yeah, let’s do that!” “My handwriting is terrible…” “It’s okay Jongho, I can write yours.”

Everyone grabbed whatever tool they had more at hand and set themselves to the task of writing their names on the tree’s bark. Yeosang squeezed himself between Wooyoung and Yunho and started carving his name carefully.

“It’s so cool to think about the future”, Wooyoung said.

“Yeah”, Yunho stopped to daydream, “What would we be doing in 10 years?”

“We’ll be 22 then… maybe work?”, Wooyoung suggested.

“I want to be an astronaut!”, Yunho beamed.

“I want to be an archeologist!”, Mingi shouted back from the other side of trunk.

“That’s so boring”, Wooyoung bickered.

“It’s not boring! I will discover a new dinosaur!”, Mingi pouted.

“I want to be a firefighter”, Jongho announced proudly.

“Then you need to stop being a crybaby”, Hongjoong scoffed.

“Why is my name so long?”, Wooyoung complained.

“You need help? I finished a long time ago”, San mocked him.

Wooyoung just made a weird face at him and focused on his carving.

“I finished too! Should I write your name, Jongho?”, Yunho asked the youngest.

“No, I think I can do it”, he replied while furrowing his eyebrows in concentration.

Yeosang proudly looked at his name on the tree. It was not very even and also not straight, but it was clear whose name it was, and it would be there 10 years from now for him to read. He passed his fingers through the inscription and stared at it.

What would future Yeosang be doing? Would he be a scientific like he dreamed of becoming? Or maybe would he study something different? Whatever the future had in stock for him, he was excited about it. Almost restless.

However, the biggest question pending on his mind was not related to him but to his friends. Would they still be friends in 10 years? He hoped that the answer would be positive.

Yeosang looked at his friends in silence for a minute.

San was bothering Wooyoung about his carving, bragging how his was cleaner and better in every way. Wooyoung just bickered back.

Yunho and Mingi were watching over the youngest, who was having trouble with his writing. Giving him encouraging words, Jongho seemed more relaxed about doing a good job.

Seonghwa and Hongjoong were on the other side of the trunk, working in silence just chuckling from time to time.

Yeosang smiled fondly at his friends. He did not know what the future held for them, but he sure hoped destiny would keep them together. 

Yeosang headed out the leaf curtain to the clear. He took a deep breath and looked at the moon. It was shining bright upon them. Yeosang could not help but feel hopeful. He was happy.

The sound of a branch breaking distracted him from his thoughts. Yeosang stared at the forest in front of him, looking for the source of the sound. He found it too quickly for his liking.

A white gelatinous figure slowly entered the clear. Yeosang gulped. It was one of those jelly monsters… The creature did not seem as scary as everyone portrayed them. Also, not as big. But that did not keep Yeosang from slowly going back to his friends. They had to flee. Now.

“Guys! There is one of them!”, he whispered in a rush.

“What? Where?”, Hongjoong asked with panic on his eyes.

“It’s on the clear. I don’t think he has noticed us”, Yeosang explained.

“Then we have to go before it does”, Seonghwa nodded.

“I’m scared”, Jongho pouted.

“Jongho, now is not the time to cry”, San told the kid.

“We’ll take care of you”, Yunho added.

“Nothing will happen to you as long as we are here”, Mingi assured the youngest.

“Now let’s go get the bikes”, Hongjoong said.

“Let’s not ride them until we are far enough”, Wooyoung whispered.

“C’mon now”, Seonghwa leaded the group.

Hongjoong walked behind everyone, making sure none was left behind.

“We have to alert everyone when we get back”, Seonghwa said.

“Then they’ll now we went out”, San whispered-screamed.

“There is a jelly monster, San! They kill people”, Mingi replied.

“My mom is going to kill me if she finds out”, San explained.

“This thing will kill you in a much more painful way if it finds you”, Yunho said as a matter of fact.

San shut up and continued walking in silence. Soon they reached the bicycles on the other side of the clear and slowly started undoing the path they had taken. Everyone flinched at every noise, thinking it might be one of those creatures. Yeosang was scared for his life, but he tried to remain calm because beside him was Jongho. The kid was crying as silently as he could, covering his mouth with his hand to muffle his sobs. Yeosang held his free hand tightly. He was the only one that could tend to him as the other were carrying the bikes.

“It’s going to be okay”, Yeosang whispered to Jongho, softly patting his head.

Soon they exited the forest and let out the collective breath they were holding.

“Let’s get on the bikes now”, Hongjoong ordered.

Yeosang sat behind Yunho again. He noticed the other’s knees were shaking. Yeosang held tight onto him, hoping that the contact will help him relax.

Seonghwa gestured them to start pedaling.

Right that moment, a jelly figure rushed out the forest. It was big now. And scary. Its only eye was red and looking right at them.

“HURRY THE FUCK DOWN”, Hongjoong screamed at the bunch.

Yeosang held on to dear life to Yunho’s back while his friend pedaled as fast as he could. Everyone was doing just that.

Yeosang could feel his heart pounding on his chest. The adrenaline just telling him a short and sweet message: RUN!

The creature let out a horrible screech behind them. Yeosang dared to look around just to see it run in all fours. Towards them.

“It’s coming”, he shouted.

His friends looked over their shoulders with panicked looks.

“Go faster!”, Hongjoong rushed them.

Yeosang could not stop looking at the infamous monster. Its body was leaving white fluid everywhere. Its red eye was shining while it clumsily ran. The creature let out another screech. This time it was louder.

Everything that happened after that was chaotic.

The town’s siren started roaring. They probably had heard the screech and were warning the town’s folks to go into hiding.

The siren’s noise caused the jelly monster to stop on its tracks and take his two upper gelatinous limps towards his eye to cover it. Its screech got even louder, to the point that it was deafening. Probably that is what caused San to fall of his bike.

Everyone kept riding for a few seconds before stopping at the sound of the thud.

“San!”, Wooyoung screamed.

The creature recovered from its initial shock and shook its head, splattering the white mucus everywhere on the process. Some of it fell on San.

“San!”, Wooyoung continued screaming as the kid tried to shake the fluid off.

Then the real chaos ensued. Wooyoung got off his bike to help San. Seonghwa started screaming at them. The monster fixed it gaze on San and Wooyoung who had gotten to his level and was helping him get up.

“RUN”, Yeosang shouted as the gelatinous form started approaching them.

Wooyoung looked over his shoulder with shock on his eyes.

“SAN HURT HIMSELF”, he shouted in a panic.

“Fuck”, Hongjoong got off his bike and hurried to the other’s aid.

Between the two of them carried the injured kid down the hill to Wooyoung’s bike.

“Hold on tight!”, Wooyoung told San.

San just nodded while crying.

“C’mon!!”, Hongjoong dashed to his own bicycle.

They continued pedaling, but the creature followed suit. This time faster. It had marked its target, and it was not going to let go so easily. The monster screeched again. Jongho was bawling, holding onto Seonghwa as tight as possible.

“We have to split! Distract it!”, Hongjoong screamed at the top of his lungs.

They were approaching the town, Yeosang could see the police lights flickering in the distance, approaching the mountain.

“Police is here!”, he shouted with joy.

Seonghwa rushed towards the town, probably to alert them. They were not close enough though. The group kept on pedaling for dear life, but the monster closed the distance quickly. Yeosang could only watch as it dashed in between them and grabbed one of his friends. He could not identify which one until he heard a voice scream his name.

“SAN!”

San was caught.

“LET HIM GO!” “SAN” “SAN, NO!” “SAN”

Someone threw a bicycle at the creature. But it did not stop it. San was furiously kicking the monster, but all his legs did was getting covered by the mysterious jelly that the monsters did not seem to stop producing. From up close, Yeosang could tell that really, the monster was covered in the mucus. Maybe it was just made of mucus. The jelly monster shook San’s body violently.

“SAN, OH MY GOD” “SAN, ARE YOU OKAY?”

The only response they got was a new kick from the kid to the monster. He was okay, but barely.

“SAN HOLD ON, THE POLICE IS COMING”, Yeosang shouted.

He was right. Just around the corner, a patrol car approached the scene. Seonghwa quickly got down with two officers.

“Get behind the car!”, one of them shouted while pointing with his gun at the monster.

“They got San!”, Wooyoung was bawling.

“Wooyoung! The car!”, Hongjoong grabbed his friend and forced him into hiding.

Yeosang kneeled behind the police car. He never prayed, but right now he was. He was begging whatever God there was to help them. To help San.

Yeosang covered his ears when he heard the shots. He saw his friends around him. Wooyoung was crying while Yunho held him down. Mingi was in silence, just staring at the ground with a blank expression on his face. Seonghwa was hugging and trying to calm down a very scared Jongho. Hongjoong was peeking at the scene from behind the car. Time seemed to freeze when he heard a curse coming from the police officers.

“He got him! We need reinforcements. I repeat, the creature transformed a kid! We got two now”

The creature what?

Yeosang stood up instinctively. But he wished he did not, because the scene that unfolded in front of his eyes was too horrible to bear.

San was on the floor, but he was in all fours. He was vomiting the white mucus, but when it came out of his body, it stuck onto him. It disgustingly wrapped around him, covering his whole body with the gelatinous substance. Then San looked up, as if noticing Yeosang’s gaze.

What Yeosang saw in that moment haunted him forever.

San’s face was contorting in many ways, his mouth opening and closing, as if gasping for air, and his eyes… his eyes were merging. His eyes were merging into one. Into a big red eye on the middle of his face. As the police officer had said, he was transforming. Transforming into one of those creatures. And he knew what orders police had when it came to the jelly monsters: kill on sight.

Yeosang watched as the officer lifted his gun to point at San. Right to his new shining bright red eye. Time seemed to pass in slow motion as the bullet floated in a straight direction towards his friend.

Next thing he knew, San was lying on the floor. Well, could he call _that_ San? His friend face was unrecognizable. Half his body was covered in the white fluid. His new eye was still red, but it did not shine in any way.

San was dead.

Yeosang’s knees gave up on him and made him fall to the ground, forcing him to lose sight of the scene. He felt tears streaming down his face.

“Yeosang, what happened?”, Wooyoung demanded to know.

He stared blankly at his friend, not being able to find a proper answer to his question.

If there is a God, it sure is a cruel one.

※

San’s coffin was empty when they let him down. The officers had to completely incinerate the body for the virus not to spread. Yeosang attended his first funeral at the age of 12 years old. He spent the whole time holding onto Seonghwa’s hand. The oldest of the group (just for a couple months, as Hongjoong loved to remind him) was putting on a strong façade for everyone.

Yeosang learnt many things the days that followed San’s death.

Apparently, the white jelly monsters were people. Just that they were infected with a lethal virus. He knew the monsters had been around for five years, plaguing the country and the world. But he did not know their origin.

Because of being in close contact with it, he had to go through some medical tests to make sure he had not been infected. Thankfully, none had come in contact with the virus. However, the doctors decided to keep Hongjoong and Wooyoung quarantined as they were the ones closest to it. Besides San, of course.

He also learnt that he did not have any black formal clothes. His parents had to buy him a shirt and pants for the funeral.

Yeosang also learnt about grievance. And how it affects people. He cried every night.

He also learnt about revenge.

“I’ll make them pay”, Wooyoung’s hand was closed in a fist when they were finally able to meet him after quarantine.

“The police had to do what they had to do”, Yunho tried to calm his friend down.

“I’m not talking about the police”, Wooyoung whipped away his tears, “I’ll kill every single jelly creature in this world.”

“I don’t think you can do that”, Mingi muttered.

“But I have to try!”, Wooyoung’s eyes were red from crying.

“Wooyoung, calm down”, Seonghwa patted the other’s shoulder.

“I can’t calm down! We promised! We made a blood oath!”, Wooyoung raised his voice.

The room went quiet for a minute before Hongjoong broke the silence with a sigh.

“We owe it to him”, he whispered.

“That’s crazy! We can’t kill them! We are just a bunch of kids!”, Seonghwa tried to force some logic into their minds.

“We won’t be kids forever”, Wooyoung simply replied.

“We can join the military police and fight on the front lines”, Hongjoong continued.

“Are you crazy? You want to get yourself killed?”, Seonghwa was the one to raise his voice this time.

“No, but… Seonghwa, we owe it to San”, Hongjoong said, this time softly.

“Killing a bunch of sick people won’t bring him back”, Seonghwa replied bitterly.

“I know that, but I cannot just sit still!”, Hongjoong shouted.

“There must be a cure”, Yeosang whispered.

“What?”, Yunho demanded.

“If we are able to find a cure… I’m sure… I’m sure…”, Yeosang breathed in before continuing, “I’m sure San would be happy.”

“San would want them all dead”, Wooyoung insisted.

“You don’t know that”, Mingi replied.

“So, you want me to just stay still until scientists find a cure? A vaccine? Would that bring San back?”, Wooyoung shouted.

“It won’t, but still you won’t be killing people!”, Seonghwa screamed back.

“They killed San”, Wooyoung insisted.

“It wanted to kill us all”, Hongjoong muttered.

“Then you have that in common”, Seonghwa bitted back.

Hongjoong glared at Seonghwa.

“I cannot deal with you when you are like that”, he said while grabbing the door and exiting the room. Wooyoung followed him.

The room was silent except for Jongho’s sobbing.


	2. To My Youth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Years have passed and now Yeosang is working towards his goal of finding a cure to the jelly monster virus. Could the arrival of a giant robot set some light into the matter?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! This is day 25 of the Songfic Kpop Challenge I created. If you are curious about the schedule or want to participate you can check it on my pinned tweet (@jeonghxbit). Thank you for reading and hope you enjoy it!

Yeosang lifted his eyes from the document he was reading. He was tired, so tired. He stretched himself on the chair he was sitting on. What time was it? He had no clue, but Yeosang was sure that dinner time had finished a long time ago. For the first time in hours, he felt his stomach’s demand of food. Yeosang got up and headed to the kitchen, luckily, he could sneak in and grab some bread. But, as expected with his luck, he was caught.

“Yeosang? Where are you going?”, a familiar voice stopped him.

“Good night, Mingi”, Yeosang turned around slowly.

“What were you doing? You didn’t come for dinner”, Mingi furrowed his eyebrows.

“Ah well, you know, I was…”, Yeosang tried to come up with an excuse, but Mingi knew him all too well.

“You were looking up some documents again”, he sighed while pinching the bridge of his nose.

“Well, yeah. Is that a crime?”, Yeosang became defensive.

“What?”, Mingi looked puzzled, “Of course not. But Yeosang, have you looked at yourself in the mirror lately? You look horrible.”

“No, I don’t. I’m not trying to flirt with any lab assistant like some…”, Yeosang replied.

Mingi blushed, knowing well what the other was implying.

“You are missing the point here”, Mingi got back to his senses.

“I know your point”, Yeosang cut the other.

“No, you don’t”, Mingi sighed, “Look, we are all obsessed with finding that damned vaccine here. But you, you take it so personal. Like it’s your life goal, the reason for your existence!”

“It is personal for me”, Yeosang glared at Mingi, “Is it not for you? You were not there when San…?”

“I was!”, Mingi breathed heavily, “Of course I was! But my point is that you are pressuring yourself too much. You are going to kill yourself by overworking, and that won’t bring back San.”

The corridor was silent for a minute, the tension was heavy between the two.

“Guys? What are you doing? It’s long past curfew”, a voice scolded them.

“Oh, Seonghwa? You are awake too?”, Mingi greeted the man.

“I was going to take some bread”, Yeosang explained himself.

“Our means are limited, stop skipping meals and you will eat”, Seonghwa crossed his arms in front of his body.

“Sure”, Yeosang sulked.

“Now you better go to bed”, Seonghwa continued the scolding.

Mingi and Yeosang nodded in silence and headed their way.

“To your own bed”, Seonghwa insisted.

Mingi turned around sulkily to head in the correct direction.

“You guys won’t let a man have any fun”, he murmured before disappearing into a corridor.

Yeosang’s room was a complete chaos when he entered it. He had never been a messy person, but his obsession had taken over everything else in his life. However hard it was to do so, he had to admit Mingi was right: he was taking this too seriously. But who would not? After what Yeosang saw, after what happened to San that night… all his priorities shifted. Of course, he had always been interested in science, but he made it his goal to enter a chemistry related field in university. He even graduated with honors. Seonghwa just had to mention his name to the lab supervisor and he was hired right after receiving his degree.

Ever since then he had devoted himself to the so-called cure. There had been some advances, but it was still too soon to say that they had found a cure for the JELRUS-34, or how people loved to call it: the jelly monster virus. Working on the lab, Yeosang had had the pleasure of knowing the phases of infection in detail. The transformation process was over in five minutes, but the illness lasted forever. Or till you were shot to death.

To be infected, you had to come in direct contact with the virus. That meant touching, smelling, or tasting the jelly. There was no way to stop it once it had penetrated your body. The transformation was so fast that your body was unable to protect itself from the virus. At first, the virus would enter your blood vessels and go straight into the liver and stomach. When the puking started, it was over. An infected person would start puking the fluid, a sticky compound formed by chemical elements not found in this world, and it would start sticking onto the person’s body. Slowly, and for a reason yet to be found, the cells of their body would start to be altered, being the eyes the most obvious alteration: they would merge into one. A big red one at that. Shiny red eye meant alive and ready to kill. Through a lot of trial and error, the military police discovered it was the only point of their body that was not made of the jelly, hence the only point where they could shoot and effectively stop the monster. Shredding its limbs, its head, stabbing it, crushing them with one of their giant robots, poisoning them… the military police tried a lot of methods, losing a lot of lives in the process, to no avail. The big red eye was the only way. That is why they created their robots. Big safe machines for humans to pilot and kill some jelly monsters in the process. As far as Yeosang was concerned, Wooyoung, Hongjoong and Jongho piloted one of those. Or so Jongho had told them.

After that huge fight they had, Wooyoung and Hongjoong took on the revenge path and eventually joined the military police. Yeosang still remembers the day Seonghwa came crying to his house.

“Yeosang!”, he cried, “We have to stop them!”

Without another word, Seonghwa grabbed his hand and dragged his friend across the town to the entrance. There was a military truck in which some of the people of the town were getting onto. Waiting in queue were Wooyoung and Hongjoong. Mingi, Yunho and Jongho were already there, trying to talk some sense into the guys.

“You two are gonna get killed”, Yunho was telling them when Yeosang and Seonghwa finally approached the group.

“What’s this about?”, Yeosang asked.

“The military police are recruiting”, Wooyoung simply answered.

“They are recruiting fucking teenagers! That’s a crime!”, Seonghwa shouted.

“Because they need the manpower!”, Hongjoong replied.

“They need pawns to put in the front line! You will just become cannon fodder”, Seonghwa tried again.

“Guys, you are not even 18”, Mingi begged them.

“I am 18”, Hongjoong snorted.

“The minimum age is 16”, Wooyoung shrugged.

“They are sending kids to war and you still not realize how bad of an idea this is?”, Yunho pressed.

“I am not willing to just sit down and wait for these fucking monsters to disappear! They are killing us, for God’s sake!”, Hongjoong raised his arms.

“Have you guys forgotten?”, Wooyoung accused them.

The group went silent.

“Of course we haven’t”, Yeosang whispered.

“Then? Why can’t you understand that we can’t stay still?”, Wooyoung insisted.

“We do understand that. We also want to make a change but… this is just not the way”, Seonghwa sighed.

“Then what is the correct way?”, Wooyoung raised his voice, “How I see it, we won’t be safe until there is no source of infection.”

“But a cure…”, Yeosang started.

“You and your fucking cure!”, Wooyoung groaned.

“There have been tests run!”, Yunho defended his friend.

“And what have we achieved?”, Hongjoong shouted, “We aren’t closer to finding a cure!”

“Still, it’s better that just go on a killing spree”, Mingi snorted.

“Ah yeah, sure, just let me grab my syringes and my chemicals and get inside a bunker while people die outside. Don’t worry, guys! I’m working on a vaccine, just hold on!”, Wooyoung mocked them.

“Look, we are going to enroll. That’s it. We can’t standby anymore”, Hongjoong looked at his friends on the eyes.

“So, you are set?”, Seonghwa’s gaze was stuck onto Hongjoong’s.

“Yeah”, the guy nodded.

Seonghwa started crying again.

“So that’s it?”, Seonghwa demanded.

“I guess”, Hongjoong shrugged.

“Then, you can go and throw yourself into those fucking beasts and become one yourself for all I care”, Seonghwa turned around and started walking back into the town.

“Seonghwa!”, Hongjoong called him.

He tried to approach him, but Seonghwa just pushed him aside. Hongjoong insisted, but he only got a slap to the face as a response. Like that, Seonghwa walked away. Eventually, Hongjoong and Wooyoung got on the truck, followed by a clumsy Jongho.

“I’ll make sure they don’t fucking kill themselves”, he promised.

Yunho, Mingi and Yeosang had no strength to stop the youngest of the bunch. Jongho promised to stay in contact. Most of the time he could not tell us much about what they were doing. Apparently, Wooyoung turned out to be an exceptional cadet and quickly rose in ranks, taking Hongjoong and Jongho with him. Their job was mostly related to destroying nests. When the jelly monsters were not out hunting prey to either infect or consume, they stayed in groups.

So far, Jongho had kept his promise of keeping them save. But for how long could they resist? The few news Yeosang and the rest got in the lab were only bad. Most of the world had fallen into chaos. Governments fell, unable to control the growth of the virus. Thankfully, some still held on and financed both the war and the finding of the cure. At this point, Yeosang was not even getting paid, but he was selfish enough not to care. He had the resources to find the cure and that was enough. That was all he cared about anyway. Rest would come later.

Eventually, he managed to fall asleep. Maybe it would have been better not to.

He had a nightmare. Well, not just any nightmare. The nightmare.

He was on the forest again, looking at the jelly monster. Then he was running down the hill, being followed by it. He did not dare to turn around and face the monster. He knew what he was going to see. But as always, he looked at it. And as always, the same scene played out. It was like a loop. San transformed into a jelly monster right in front of Yeosang’s eyes. And he was forced to watch every time.

However, this time San spoke. He cleaned his mouth, which was covered in the fluid he was puking.

“They are coming”, the kid spoke to Yeosang.

“Who?”

San finished transforming and jumped towards Yeosang.

※

The alarms were roaring when Yeosang woke up panting. He pushed the blankets aside and quickly got up from bed. He struggled to reach the doorknob as he was trampling with all the stuff that was on the floor. When he finally opened the door, he saw people running down the corridor. But a person stood out from the crowd: Seonghwa.

He grabbed Yeosang’s hand and pulled him out his room.

“They are here!”, Seonghwa shouted.

Next thing Yeosang knew is that he was following the crowd, leaded by Seonghwa. From the corner of his eyes he saw a very rushed Mingi button his pants while running behind a very drowsy Yunho.

“What the hell is happening?”, Yeosang managed to ask to none in particular.

“We got visit”, Yunho panted.

“Yeah, but who?”, Yeosang raised his voice.

He found the answer right before him. They were outside the lab. The military police that was in charge of guarding the laboratory had withdrawn their guns and were pointing at something.

A giant robot.

“Identify yourself!”, a voice shouted through the speakers.

“Lower your weapons”, another voice replied from the robot’s speakers.

“We won’t until you identify yourself.”

“Why won’t you just give them your name?” “We are allies they shouldn’t be pointing at us!” “Just give them your name, I’m fucking bleeding here!” “Fine! I’ll be nice!”

A quarrel seemed to start inside the robot.

“This is Captain Jung Wooyoung speaking to you. I have my First Lieutenant, Kim Hongjoong bleeding and in need of assistance. Besides, Chief Warrant Officer Choi Jongho is in desperate need of a bathroom.” “Hey!” “Could we go down?”

※

Yeosang stared at Seonghwa and his patient through the operation room’s glass. Besides him was a very changed Wooyoung. The tension in the air was tangible. They had not spoken to each other in years and now… this?

“What the hell happened to you guys?”, Yeosang eventually managed to ask.

“We ran into some trouble”, Wooyoung shrugged.

“What kind of trouble?”, Yeosang lifted an eyebrow.

“Jongho has probably kept you updated so you know about the nests. Let’s just say the last one we visited was a lot busier than expected”, Wooyoung shrugged.

“So, you were outnumbered?”

“An occupational hazard.”

“How did Hongjoong get injured?”

“Another occupational hazard”, Wooyoung sighed.

“That’s not an explanation”, Yeosang furrowed his eyebrows, “Also you are missing two robots.”

“Don’t remind me! I have to figure a way to explain that to my superiors?”, Wooyoung pinched the bridge of his nose.

Right that moment, Seonghwa came out from the operation room and approached them.

“How is he?”, Wooyoung asked him.

“He will survive”, Seonghwa simply said.

“How fast?”, Wooyoung demanded to know.

“You just reunited with your friends and you are eager to go?”, Seonghwa mocked Wooyoung while lifting an eyebrow.

“Don’t give me that bullshit”, Wooyoung snorted.

“I just saved your First Lieutenant’s ass. I can give you all the bullshit that I want”, Seonghwa replied coolly.

Suddenly Yunho stormed through the doors to their left. His face was contorted in an expression Yeosang was not used to see his friend wearing: anger. Mingi and Jongho were running behind him, probably trying to stop him from taking it out on someone. But it seemed he had already set for a victim.

“Are you fucking kidding me?”, Yunho grabbed Wooyoung by the collar.

“What? What did I do?”, Wooyoung faked innocence.

“Don’t pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about”, Yunho’s grasp on the other tightened.

“Jongho”, Wooyoung gave a significant look to his subordinate.

“You knew I couldn’t keep silent about it”, he defended himself.

“What happened?”, Seonghwa blurted out.

“Hongjoong is fucking infected that’s what happened”, Yunho answered.

“WHAT?”, Yeosang shouted.

“I just fucking opened his guts in the operation table!”, Seonghwa looked at Wooyoung in disbelief.

“I had to keep quiet”, Wooyoung excused himself.

“Quiet my ass!”, Yunho screamed.

“Otherwise, you wouldn’t have assisted him!”, Wooyoung pushed.

“Of course not! He would be a fucking jelly mons- Wait”, Mingi stopped himself, “Why isn’t he a fucking jelly bastard?”

“That’s a question we’ve been asking ourselves for the past day”, Wooyoung rolled his eyes.

“Are you sure he was infected?”, Yeosang posed.

“The guy was bathed in the fluid!”, Jongho explained, “No way he wouldn’t have been. We were already pointing at him, crying, and waiting for him to start puking. But he didn’t. We were like that for at least half an hour. Actually, the wound is from Wooyoung’s missed bullet.”

“That’s impossible”, Seonghwa muttered.

“I know it’s hard to belief I would miss a target”, Wooyoung smirked.

“Shut the fuck up”, Yunho threw him on the floor.

“The point is we have been with him for a day like that. Treating his wound and all. But no red eye, no white fluid, no symptoms”, Jongho concluded.

“We have to test him”, Mingi decided.

“We have to test all three of them”, Yeosang insisted.

“The three of us?”, Wooyoung asked while getting up.

“You have been in contact with an infected person, of course you should”, Seonghwa said.

“Yeah, I think that’s a good idea”, Jongho agreed.

“Thank God there is a braincell in your team”, Yunho poked a finger on Wooyoung’s chest.

“That’s why we let him go anyway”, Mingi shrugged.

“Enough”, Seonghwa stated, “Let’s go to the laboratory.”

※

Yeosang could not believe his eyes. But the results were there. They had already run three tests on the guy, but the blood analysis would not budge. Hongjoong had the virus.

Wooyoung and Jongho did not, though.

“How is this possible?”, they had already made that question a hundred times in the past hour, but Yunho posed it again.

“Maybe he is asymptomatic”, Mingi suggested.

“He would have the privilege of being the first one then”, Seonghwa tilted his head.

“That’s just crazy”, Yeosang took a seat.

“Why is it that crazy?”, Jongho leaned forward on his chair.

“Why? Well, because the process is unstoppable? Once you are infected you are done. You don’t last longer than ten minutes”, Yunho explained.

“But somehow, Hongjoong’s transformation didn’t even start”, Yeosang muttered.

“We have to take samples of his blood cells and analyze them further”, Mingi insisted.

“Maybe he has natural antibodies?”, Seonghwa contributed to the brainstorming.

“Then… that means…”, Yunho’s eyes opened wide.

“What? What does it mean?”, Wooyoung lifted an eyebrow.

“If Hongjoong has antibodies… we have a cure”, Yeosang announced.

Seonghwa and Yunho nodded. Mingi started grabbing some syringes and materials.

“Wait a second”, Wooyoung stopped the scientists, “You are not about to abuse my subordinate’s antibodies.”

“We are not going to abuse anyone. We are just taking samples”, Yeosang sighed.

“So that you can abuse Hongjoong’s body?”, Wooyoung snorted.

“Well, if he has antibodies of course we’ll abuse the fuck out of him for the sake of the world?”, Yunho said.

“You are willing to do that to your friend?”, Wooyoung insisted.

“Oh, _now_ we are friends?”, Seonghwa mocked the captain, “Let me tell you I am more than willing to even torture that evil ex-boyfriend of mine if that means saving the fucking world.”

Seonghwa stormed out the room before anyone could stop him.

“Did he just say that?”, Mingi pointed at the door Seonghwa had left open.

“Yeah he did”, Yunho nodded.

“They dated?”, Wooyoung’s eyes were about to escape their orbits.

“When did that happen?”, Yeosang muttered.

“C’mon guys. It was obvious. They _found_ the tree”, Jongho rolled his eyes.

“Oh…” “I see.”

“The tree…”, Wooyoung repeated.

“It’s almost been 10 years, hasn’t it?”, Yunho said softly.

“Yeah”, Mingi patted Yunho’s shoulder.

Silence reigned the conversation once again. This time was Jongho who broke it by hawking.

“Shall we go?”, he asked the group.

“Yeah, we have an evil ex-boyfriend to sample”, Yeosang nodded.

“Why evil though?” “What did he do?” “Abandon him.” “Ah! The slap!” “It all makes sense now…”

They marched through the corridor, heading to Hongjoong’s room.

※

Hongjoong was sleeping peacefully after being sampled. Yeosang was left on watch duty of his vitals while Mingi and Yunho worked on the lab. Seonghwa and Wooyoung came from time to time to check on him. Yeosang was eager to be released of his duty and head to the lab. The sampled tissue results would not be up until tomorrow morning, but he wanted to observe them instead of his old friend. Hongjoong agreed to do all the testing when they explained the situation and their suspicions.

“If the world needs my body, I am more than willing to give it up”, he said.

“We are not going to kill you”, Mingi assured him.

“If you needed to kill me, I would be willing to die”, Hongjoong insisted.

“You are so fucking dramatic”, Seonghwa rolled his eyes, “Stretch out your arm so that I can take the sample.”

Hongjoong complied while pouting at Seonghwa. Yeosang’s mind wondered about the couple. How did he not notice? Looking back, it was obvious. They spent the most time alone while the others hanged up in a group. Yeosang always thought it was because they were the older ones, because they were in ‘charge’ of a bunch of kids. Maybe that was it at the beginning. They got together to plan their next adventure, and eventually it developed into love. Well, could he label a thing between 12 years old love? Yeosang guessed it was, in a way.

The door opened, bringing Yeosang back to reality. Jongho came inside the room.

“Hi”, Yeosang greeted him softly.

“How is he doing?”, Jongho asked.

“I guess fine. His vitals are stable and there are no signs of his eyes merging”, Yeosang shrugged.

“That’s good to hear”, Jongho smiled, “So, you think there is a high possibility he has natural antibodies?”

“I don’t want to rush into conclusions, but I’m positive about it. Otherwise, this situation wouldn’t make sense”, Yeosang stretched himself on the chair.

“You seem tired”, Jongho stated, “Should I watch him so that you can rest?”

“Actually, that would be nice. But you know nothing about these machines so…”, Yeosang smiled at Jongho.

“I’m sorry, did I sound like I was giving you an option there?”, Jongho tilted his head.

Yeosang furrowed his eyebrows, confused.

“What do you mean, Jongho?”

“What I meant was I want you to leave the room.”

“I don’t understand”, Yeosang was puzzled.

Jongho withdrew a gun from his back and pointed it at Yeosang.

“Wow! Calm down”, Yeosang lifted both his arms.

“Do you understand now?”, Jongho loaded his pistol.

“Why are you pointing at me?”, Yeosang tried to remain calm.

“You are going to die anyway, so it makes no difference whether I kill you or they do”, Jongho shrugged.

“Who?”

“The jelly monsters”, Jongho explained.

“Jongho, what are you saying?”

“Yeosang”, Jongho smiled creepily, “I’m sure you would agree with me. You have always been the most reasonable one of us. Except for me, of course”, he chuckled, “Do you really think this is taking us anywhere?”

“What?”

“The war, the cure… Resistance is meaningless”, Jongho continued, “We are all going to die in the end.”

“We resist because we are hopeful. It’s in our human nature”, Yeosang replied bitterly.

The man in front of him laughed. Yeosang had started to put the pieces together, and he did not like one bit where Jongho’s train of thought was heading.

“Then… I guess I’m not human?”, the guy said.

As fast as lighting, Jongho turned around and pointed at Hongjoong. In one second, blood stained the sheets of the bed where he was sleeping. The vital signs monitor started producing a deafening beep.

“What the fuck are you doing?”, Yeosang shouted.

“Crushing your hopes?”, Jongho smiled.

Then he proceeded to reach for something inside his jacket.

“You killed Hongjoong!”, Yeosang accused the guy.

“Thanks for noticing this time”, Jongho chuckled.

“This time? What do you mean?”, Yeosang’s mind was working as fast as it could. He had to get out of there and alert the others.

“You really think San falling off the bike was an accident?”, Jongho lifted an eyebrow.

“Wh-What?”, suddenly Yeosang’s head started spinning.

“I was so shocked none realized”, Jongho laughed like a lunatic for a second and then stopped, “I pushed him.”

Yeosang tried to approach Jongho, probably wanting to punch him.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you”, Jongho loaded his gun again.

“Why are you doing this?”, Yeosang choked trying to hold back tears.

“Didn’t I already tell you? We are all gonna die anyway! The jelly virus, hunger, global warming… The human race is heading towards extinction. There is no way around it!”, Jongho raised his voice.

“So, your answer is killing your friends?”, Yeosang sniffled.

“I would prefer killing you guys myself than see you die in pain. My way is quicker”, Jongho explained.

“You are sick”, Yeosang spitted.

“Oh, trust me. I will be”, Jongho smirked.

Then he pulled what he had hidden in his jacket: a flask full of a white gelatinous fluid. Realization dawned upon Yeosang at the sight of the recipient.

“Jongho, don’t”, he simply said.

“You think you can still order me around?”, the other replied, “It was so hard keeping up that cry baby act”, he sighed, “But it was worth it.”

Jongho opened the flask and moved the liquid around, as if he were about to taste some fancy wine. He approached the recipient towards his lips but stopped last second.

“Wait. I have decided to be nice”, Jongho announced.

Yeosang exhaled a breath he did not know he was holding.

“I’ll give you like… 30 seconds? So you can ring the alarms and all that.”

“Wooyoung won’t have mercy on you”, Yeosang replied bitterly.

“He can’t shoot me”, Jongho smirked once again, “This is his gun.”

“You fucking…”, Yeosang started speaking.

“30… 29… 28…”, Jongho started counting.

Saving his curses for later, Yeosang hurried outside the room and headed to the nearest alarm. He broke the protective glass with his elbow and pushed the red button. The alarms started roaring. Then Yeosang pushed the emergency communicator button.

“Everybody run! Jongho has killed Hongjoong and transformed himself into a jelly monster. Escape the lab!”, he informed the lab crew.

Then he proceeded to run himself. At best, they had five minutes to escape the facilities. Worst case scenario… Yeosang did not want to think about it. He focused on running towards the exit. On his way he almost bumped into Seonghwa.

“Seonghwa! Where are you going? The exit is the other way!”, Yeosang shouted at his friend.

“Jongho killed Hongjoong!”, he replied and dashed the way Yeosang had just come from.

“Seonghwa, you are going to get killed!”, Yeosang insisted.

“Not if I kill the bastard first!”, Seonghwa shouted back.

Before Yeosang could stop him, Seonghwa had turned around the corner and headed towards Hongjoong’s room direction. Yeosang felt the urge to go after him, but he had an even more pressing one: run. So, he did just that while whipping his tears away.

When he finally got out the lab, the rest of his friends were outside panting.

“What the fuck happened?”, Yunho grabbed Yeosang by the shoulders.

“I don’t know”, Yeosang tried to grasp for air and speak at the same time, “Jongho came into the room and menaced me. Then he talked about hope and how everything is meaningless and shot Hongjoong. He said he killed San too”, Yeosang’s voice lowered.

“What?”, Wooyoung violently approached him.

“He pushed him off his bike”, Yeosang explained.

Wooyoung’s eyes opened wide.

“That can’t be”, Mingi covered his mouth in shock.

“He drank some jelly monster fluids we had stocked for sampling”, Yeosang concluded.

“Where is Seonghwa?”, Yunho suddenly wondered.

“He said he was going to kill Jongho”, Yeosang could not stop his tears anymore.

“Fucking stupid!”, Yunho lifted his hands to hold his head.

Then they heard a screech coming from the facilities.

“Let’s get on the robot”, Wooyoung broke his silence.

Without a second of doubt, they headed towards the giant robot. Wooyoung got in first and went up the stairs inside the robot to the tiny pilot cabin. Everyone followed suit.

“Can we fit in here?”, Mingi asked.

“You better fit”, Wooyoung tilted his head while pushing some buttons.

In a second the robot was started. Wooyoung held the controls tightly.

“Let’s hope it has enough ammunition”, he muttered before rising the robot’s weapon.

The first jelly monster came out the facilities a second after Wooyoung had loaded the robot’s giant gun. Jongho must have infected everyone on its way towards the exit, because quickly a bunch of jelly monsters followed after the first one.

“Fuck”, Wooyoung simply said.

They were fucked indeed. Wooyoung kept on shooting with sharp accuracy, but the jelly bastards kept on appearing. There were as much alive as there were dead. Yeosang just prayed that one of them was not Seonghwa. But he knew all too well his friend did not carry a weapon with him. On the ground, the military police in charge of protecting the laboratory was struggling to fight the horde of monsters. If it were not for Wooyoung’s robot, they would have been dead by now. For ten minutes, Wooyoung kept on shooting the monsters with his eyebrows furrowed and his lips protruding. He was focused.

“Get out the robot”, Wooyoung suddenly announced.

“What?”, Yunho asked.

“Get out the fucking robot!”, Wooyoung shouted.

“We’ll get killed!”, Mingi panicked.

“I’ll keep them busy! Just get out!”, Wooyoung insisted.

“Why?”, Yeosang did not understand the other’s urge to put them into danger.

“I’m running out of ammunition”, Wooyoung sighed, “Civilians must be protected.”

“If we get out of here you’ll do something risky”, Yunho pressed.

“I’ll do it no matter you guys are inside or not”, Wooyoung gritted his teeth.

“We have a blood oath!”, Yunho reminded him.

Wooyoung took his eyes off the battlefield and looked directly into Yunho’s eyes. Yeosang could feel the burning sensation of Wooyoung’s gaze even if it were not on him.

“And I’ll honor it”, he simply said.

“Let’s get out”, Mingi forced Yunho to the stairs.

“You better not die”, Yeosang warned Wooyoung before following them.

“If I die, I’ll bring those bastards down with me”, Wooyoung smirked.

Before Yeosang set foot on the ground, he heard Wooyoung mutter.

“You fucking killed half my family. I won’t let you take the rest.”

Yeosang witnessed Wooyoung’s robot shoot until it was out of bullets. Then Wooyoung proceeded to use raw force to kill the jelly monsters. He crushed and stomped on the bastards.

Yeosang could not see any more as a figure obstructed his field of vision.

“Yeosang!”, Yunho shouted his name.

He was quick enough to avoid the monster’s attack. Yeosang quickly reminded himself that they were still on the battlefield.

“Run!”, Mingi grabbed his hand.

That was an order Yeosang was eager to follow. He ran following Yunho and Mingi. They did not dare to turn around and check whether they were being followed or not. However, they did not have to.

A gelatinous form screeched near them and suddenly appeared in front of them.

“Run!”, Yunho cried out.

They turned to their right to avoid it but were stopped by another one. Yeosang quickly realized they were surrounded.

“Fuck”, Mingi muttered.

“Does anyone have a gun?”, Yeosang asked.

“Does it look like we do?”, Yunho replied.

“I love you, Yunho”, Mingi suddenly turned to their friend.

“I love you too but don’t say it as if we are going to die”, Yunho said.

“I’m gonna die a virgin”, Yeosang blurted out.

“I promise I’ll take care of that if we get out of here”, Yunho shouted.

“You are not going to deflower Yeosang!”, Mingi said angrily.

“This is not about Yeosang’s virginity!”, Yunho tried to bring the logic back to the conversation, “We have to get out of here.”

“Right”, Mingi nodded.

“We have to split”, Yeosang settled.

“Yeah, I think so too. We have to outsmart them”, Yunho agreed.

“Our best chance is the forest. They don’t have much mobility there and we could climb a tree or something”, Mingi suggested.

“Okay, let’s do this, guys”, Yunho encouraged them.

They turned their backs to each other and faced the monsters who had been slowly approaching them while they talked.

“Now!”, Yunho shouted.

Yeosang started running right that instant. The jelly monsters seemed startled at the sudden move, but they also acted fast, trying to hunt their prey. Yeosang managed to dash through them and quickly exited the circle that had started to form around them. Without looking back, he approached the forest, looking for some cover. It was not until he reached the border when he heard the screams. He turned around to see his friends running towards him and safety. Well, not his friends in plural, just Mingi. Yunho had been caught by a couple jelly monsters who were fighting over him.

“YUNHO!”, Mingi shouted.

“Mingi! Don’t you fucking dare stop running!”, Yunho managed to shout back while being pulled.

Mingi, however, stopped.

“Mingi!”, Yeosang cried his friend name.

“Yeosang, you go on”, Mingi told him.

“Mingi, no!”, Yeosang started sobbing.

“I’m sorry”, there were tears on Mingi’s eyes, “I can’t leave without him.”

He turned around and rushed towards the monsters again.

“MINGI, NO!”, Yunho begged him.

“I would die without you anyway”, Mingi replied.

Then he was grabbed by a gelatinous arm. But Yeosang had seen enough.

He turned around and continued running while hearing his friends screams.

Was he a coward for not helping them?

Probably.

But he had an oath to keep.

So, he ran.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again! I am back with more suffering :D I hope you guys don't hate me too much after this and still read the third and final chapter of this story. Love ya xx


	3. Beautiful Pain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yeosang managed to escape, but at what cost. Now he only has one thing on his mind: honor the blood oath.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! This is day 22 of the Songfic Kpop Challenge I created. If you are curious about the schedule or want to join, you can check it on my pinned tweet (@jeonghxbit). Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy it!

Yeosang had been running for too long now. He has hungry, thirsty, and tired. But he could not stop. He had to endure. Just a little more.

Eventually, his legs gave in and he fell to the ground. The soil was moist and soft, almost felt like a grass pillow. And he was so tired. Sleeping a little bit would not kill him, right?

No, of course not. But still, he had to continue.

Time was running out.

※

The clear was as beautiful as Yeosang remembered. The whipping willow tree had grown in size in the last 10 years and it made Yeosang feel the passing of time.

Last time he came here, he had his friends with him. Now, he was alone. So many things had changed.

Yeosang was definitely not the same kid he used to be. He had grown, and not only in size. Had he grown to become the man that his younger self wanted him to be? There was only one way to find out.

Yeosang slowly approached the tree, as if he was scared of what he was going to find on the other side of the leaf curtain. When he pushed it aside, it felt as if he was entering a sanctuary. The picture was the same as 10 years ago: the moonlight was dancing through the leaves, making the place look ethereal. Yeosang then focused his gaze on the tree’s trunk. From far away he could not distinguish the carvings, but he knew they were there. He walked towards it and found them. Yeosang ran his fingers through Mingi’s name. It was clumsily written, and it made Yeosang smile fondly. He felt warm thinking about his friend, and the many times Mingi had checked on him while they worked in the laboratory. The phrase he heard him say the most was-

“Have you eaten?”

Yeosang turned around when he heard the voice. A young Mingi was looking at him.

“What?”, Yeosang blurted.

“Have you eaten?”, the kid repeated.

Had Yeosang become mad? He leaned towards the tree, trying to hold himself. He felt some roughness under his fingers. Another name. Yeosang turned around to check whose. Before he could finish reading Yunho’s name, he heard another familiar voice behind him.

“Mingi, you scared him”, a young Yunho scolded his friend.

“I didn’t!”, Mingi pouted.

The two started bickering in front of a puzzled Yeosang. He had definitely gone crazy.

“You are not crazy”, a voice shouted from above.

Yeosang looked up to meet Wooyoung’s gaze. He was hanging from a branch and chuckling while swinging.

“Wooyoung! You are going to hurt yourself!”, another voice claimed.

Across the little space behind the leaf curtain, Yeosang saw Seonghwa. He was scolding Wooyoung just like he used to do back then. Holding his hand was a sobbing Jongho. At the sight of the kid, Yeosang took a step back. His knees gave him and he slipped through the tree’s trunk and sat on the ground.

“You okay?”, Hongjoong approached him with a smile.

“What is happening?”, Yeosang felt his eyes filled with tears. However, he did not know whether they were happy or sad ones.

“Don’t worry, Yeosang. It’s okay. You are okay.”

And there he was.

San was flashing a dimpled smile at Yeosang. The man could not hold back tears anymore. Yeosang started bawling. He could sense his friends surrounding him.

“Don’t cry, Yeosang”, Yunho shushed him.

“Did I really scare you?”, Mingi asked.

Yeosang could not reply, he just kept on crying at the sight of his friends. He felt a warm hand on his shoulder. Seonghwa had kneeled by his side and was comforting him.

“Here”, Hongjoong handed a tissue to the crying mess Yeosang had become.

After a while, he managed to calm down. Confusion naturally took sadness’ place in Yeosang’s mind.

“Have I gone crazy?”, he mustered up the courage to ask.

“No, don’t worry”, San chuckled softly.

“We made a blood oath, remember?”, Wooyoung beamed.

“Of course”, Yeosang nodded.

“Our blood is here”, Hongjoong pointed at the soil.

“And our souls too”, Seonghwa lifted the metal box which he was holding.

“But why are you little?”, Yeosang wanted to know.

The group laughed at the question.

“Yeosang, you are little too”, Mingi pointed out.

Yeosang looked at himself. They were right, he was 12 again. His tiny hands and feet were there. When he got up, he was shorter than he was before. Yeosang touched his face, his cheeks were full again.

“Oh my God, I’m small!”, Yeosang’s eyes widened in shock.

Their friends laughed again and Yeosang found himself laughing with them.

“You have come a long way”, San told him.

“You worked hard”, Seonghwa agreed.

“Even if you failed to find the cure”, Jongho smirked.

“You still kept your word”, Wooyoung nodded.

“You honored the blood oath”, Yunho added.

“Now, your journey has reached its end”, Mingi said.

“You have recovered the treasure”, Hongjoong smiled.

Hongjoong took the metal box from Seonghwa’s hand and handed it to Yeosang. The kid looked at it in awe. He lifted his head to look one more time at his friends. Everyone was looking at him.

“Thank you, guys. It was fun being your friend”, Yeosang smiled softly.

Then he opened the box.

Inside there were no letters, just a plain red button.

Yeosang simply pushed it and everything went black.

※

Yeosang blinked at the sudden blinding bright light that greeted him when he removed his headset.

“That was so cool!” “What a nice plot!” “Yunho you did an amazing job with this one!”

When he was finally able to see again, he found himself in a grey room. There were some chairs placed in a circle, with his friends sitting on them. Some of them were still trying to take of their headset, but most of them were already talking about the game they just finished playing.

“Jongho! You did such a good job as the traitor”, Hongjoong congratulated the guy.

“You guys, when I saw I got the traitor role I just maxed my acting stats as much as I could”, Jongho gestured a lot excitedly.

“I always get civilian roles”, Mingi complained.

“It’s randomly generated”, Yunho explained.

“Still! The random generator thingy hates me!”, Mingi pouted.

“By the way, Seonghwa… What was with the crazy revenge moment? The doctor is supposed to keep himself safe”, San chuckled.

“It’s because I had the relationship status with Hongjoong enhanced”, Seonghwa rolled his eyes, “It only gave me two options: suicide or revenge.”

“So, you tried to kill me”, Jongho pressed his lips.

“Dude, you killed his evil ex-boyfriend!”, Wooyoung exclaimed.

“Ah, right”, Jongho nodded.

“Yunho, the dialogue options were so good too”, San complimented him.

“Yeosang you fucking killed me with the ‘I’m gonna die a virgin’ one”, Mingi laughed.

“That was so funny! What were the other options for that?”, Wooyoung wanted to know.

“I think there were another two. I was about to press ‘I love you guys too, but as like bros’ but then I saw the virgin one and said fuck it, let’s take this one”, Yeosang smiled.

“But you did such a great game too”, Hongjoong seemed impressed.

“Yeah, you managed to get back to the treasure”, Seonghwa agreed.

“To be honest, I thought the difficulty level would be too high for you guys. But you did great”, Yunho confessed.

“I’m a pro gamer”, San smirked.

“You were the first one down”, Hongjoong reminded him.

“But I did well until I died”, San pouted.

“Yeah, sure, sure”, Wooyoung patted his friend on the shoulder.

“I loved the ending”, Yeosang said softly.

“Yeah”, Mingi agreed, “It was beautiful, Yunho.”

Yunho’s ears turned red. He always became like that when praised. But his friends were not lying to him.

“You are such a nice game developer”, Seonghwa insisted.

“Yeah! I think this one was the best so far”, Jongho added.

“For sure!”, San nodded, “The jelly monsters were so scary.”

“Stop it already”, Yunho hid himself behind his hands, causing the rest to laugh.

“I hope you mention us as your beta testers when you win a videogame Oscar”, Wooyoung reclined on the chair.

“Of course, guys!”, Yunho smiled, “This wouldn’t be possible without you anyway.”

“Aww.” “You are so nice, Yunho.” “So cute.”

“I’m serious”, Yunho insisted, “You guys really inspire to push forward in this industry.”

“Oh, God!”, Hongjoong suddenly got up, “This is calling for a group hug!”

“Yay!” “Seriously?” “Not again…” “Stop complaining and come get your smooches!”

Eventually, the whole group got up and approached a very welcoming Hongjoong. They hugged each other tightly.

“We are such a great team”, Mingi smiled.

“Of course, we are”, Wooyoung agreed.

“Yeah”, Seonghwa nodded.

“8 makes 1 team after all”, Hongjoong smirked.

“By the way, Yunho have you chosen a name for the game?”, Jongho asked.

“Not yet. I was hoping you guys would help me come up with one after running the beta version·, he shrugged.

“Hm… what could be a good name?”, San tilted his head.

“How about… All to Zero?”, Yeosang suggested.

“I think that one’s neat”, Yunho smiled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Suffering is over!! I hoped you liked the ending of this story and that you did not see the plot twist coming. I'll say now that this work was also heavily inspired by a very weird movie called eXistenZ which I highly recommend if you like videogames, sci-fi & young Jude Law. I'll be writing a spin off about the SeongJoong inside here to give some insight into their virtual relationship, so if you enjoyed this story I hope you'll check that out. Thank you for reading!

**Author's Note:**

> This was highly inspired by Steven Spielberg's Super8 (just a tad more twisted... sorry about that). Please expect more to come. It won't be pretty though.  
> (Again, please do not hate me too much)


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